In July 2019, Instagram began hiding and banning pole dance related videos and the #NotAStripper community has lost it’s mind blaming strippers—here in this 2018 interview, I predict the fallout that FOSTA would have on social media for people other than sex workers. Here is a portion of the interview:

POLE POSITIVE: HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN FOSTA-SESTA GOT SIGNED INTO LAW? WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL REACTION?

Elle Stanger: I was nervous about its implications but unsure as to how enforceable it would be. The cards are still falling and let’s just say I’m not getting very much sleep.

PP: HOW MIGHT THIS LAW AFFECT YOU AS A PROFESSIONAL? WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU’VE HAD TO DO OR WILL HAVE TO DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF?

ES: [Recently] I received a text from a fellow stripper informing me that the scheduling website known as Xoticspot.com is closing down due to FOSTA-SESTA. The website just issued a statement saying so. I’ve used that small, locally run site for nine years. It helps me make money and keep track of clients and peers, and to communicate with them. It’s a real shame—the owner is a nice guy and always wanted his site run as ethically as possible and listened to dancer input and made changes to help us improve our business tools. By no fault of theirs, they fear a pimping charge, because these bills do not draw any distinction between consensual sex work and sex trafficking.

PP: WHAT ARE SOME THINGS ABOUT FOSTA-SESTA THAT CONCERN YOU MOST?

ES: In the worst cases, people are dying; sex workers are reporting missing persons from their network. One guy told me a woman in Seattle has been missing for a week because she went to "work outside," as we call it. People tend to be street-walking sex workers because they aren’t allowed to legally or safely advertise for their services. Now that the internet forums for scheduling business are being removed, many workers are finding themselves in an immediate economic crisis and have to find clients in ways that aren’t safe or preferable.